“For me, this was a difficult decision, quite literally the choice between life and death,” [Gov. Pat Quinn] wrote in his signing statement. “This was not a decision to be made lightly, or a decision that I came to without deep personal reflection.”
“Since our experience has shown that there is no way to design a perfect death penalty system, free from the numerous flaws that can lead to wrongful convictions or discriminatory treatment, I have concluded that the proper course of action is to abolish it,” Quinn wrote. “With our broken system, we cannot ensure justice is achieved in every case.”
“For the same reason, I have also decided to commute the sentences of those currently on death row to natural life imprisonment, without the possibility of parole or release,” the governor wrote.
*** UPDATE 1 *** The governor’s press conference was moved back to 12:30. Listen or watch by clicking here. I’ll be live blogging and inserting Twitter posts from others as well…
*** UPDATE 2 *** If you missed the lunchtime event, you can catch up by listening to the audio…
* Emanuel, Daley split on Quinn’s death penalty ban: “It’s the right thing to do. I’m glad he’s made that decision,” Emanuel said. “It’s a different day.” … “As a former prosecutor, I believe DNA testing should be part of the whole criminal justice system here in the state of Illinois,” Daley said. “It prevents any abuse whatsoever if you get DNA testing.”
* Illinois Gov. Quinn signs bill banning death penalty
* Zorn: Passing thought — today truly marks the end of the Nicarico murder case
* Actor, anti-death penalty activist Mike Farrell praises Ill. governor for ending death penalty
Springfield police ticketed an Auburn woman Monday for allegedly standing on the road trying to solicit work.
Laura A. Welch, 43, allegedly had a double-sided sign that read, “Mom of three, out of work” and “Out of work, hungry” on it. Police saw her about 2:10 p.m. at Dirksen Parkway and Stevenson Drive. They said they recognized her because they have talked to her numerous times before and told her not to solicit work in the roadway.
She had no permit, so she was ticketed.
* The Question: Should this be illegal? Explain, please.
John Cullerton, president of the Illinois Senate, committed a dreadful sin Monday. During a speech that could have been titled “State Finance 101,” the Chicago Democrat briefly mentioned that if Illinois taxed retirement income, Springfield would collect some $1.6 billion a year.
Can you believe that? A politician dared to mention taxing a powerful voting bloc! The lecture Cullerton wasn’t delivering Monday, “Politics 101,” dictates that talk of taxing seniors is verboten.
The accompanying photo wasn’t exactly flattering…
Oof. He looks like an unsober fop in that pic. Let’s avoid captions, please. Wouldn’t be fair. And I don’t have time to police them.
* Regardless of that photo, it’s hard to disagree with their conclusion…
Sen. Cullerton, you have a good point. Illinois needs a talk about revising tax policies and rethinking exemptions. Not to grab more from taxpayers, but to broaden the tax base as a matter of fairness. Why should the working family making $50,000 a year pay a tax that the retiree getting $100,000 a year avoids? Credit Cullerton for thinking creatively — and out loud.
I was just on the phone with former Gov. Jim Thompson talking about all the big bills that have been passed during the past few months. Subscribers will see more, but one of the things Thompson emphasized is that we need to broaden the tax base. He was mostly talking about the sales tax. The problem with a narrow, outdated taxing base, he said, is that rates have to be raised on an ever-smaller pot of available money. It makes no sense. Expand the base and then significantly lower overall rates is the better way to go. I’d prefer, however, (and I believe Thompson does as well) that they stick to expanding the base on sales taxes and not mess with the income tax, but it’s the same basic point. Expand the base and lower rates.
The problem with this particular Cullerton idea is that expanding the base will not lower rates if it’s just confined to seniors making over $100K a year. That only brings in $70 million a year. It’s best just to drop it.
But the noise should not drown out an important conversation about tax reform. Illinois desperately needs to update its tax system so it is based on ability to pay and targets taxes where the economy is expanding — among the wealthiest, not the poorest. Illinois’ current tax system, anchored by a flat income tax and a narrow sales tax base, disproportionately hits our poorest residents.
Gov. Quinn wants to create a commission to look at ways to update the tax system. We’re all for it, though several good proposals are already well-known. These include changing the state Constitution to allow for a graduated income tax, expanding the sales tax base to reflect our modern service economy (an idea Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel supports) and, potentially, taxing some retirement income.
Quinn should’ve appointed that commission a year ago. He’s a bit late now, after raising income tax rates by two points.
The other thing Thompson and I discussed is my belief that it’ll be at least a generation before the citizenry stops being infuriated at this latest tax hike. He agreed. In my own opinion, it was done the wrong way, in every way. The money is needed, to be sure, but this thing is a political disaster.
Discuss.
…Adding… Related…
* Hines: Cullerton not all wrong in pension tax proposal
* Hawthorne Race Course canceled its race card yesterday. It’s just another in a long string of woes faced by the state’s racing industry. And check this out…
Maywood Park, a harness track in the western suburbs, is threatening to close if a bill doesn’t pass by June. Sportsman’s Park, which stood next to Hawthorne for decades, closed in 2002. Rumor has it that a waste management company covets Hawthorne’s 119 acres for an incinerator and recycling plant, which would join the oil refinery and the sewage treatment plant in fouling the air of the near western suburbs.
* SIU President Glenn Poshard testified in a legislative committee last week about his university’s budget woes…
“Today, SIU’s operational support from the state of Illinois is now what it was at the close of the 20th century,” Poshard said in his testimony.
Yikes.
* The Belleville News-Democrat editorialized today on the state’s pension problems…
If a private business allowed its pension to be underfunded so badly, the responsible parties probably would be in jail.
Yeah. Like those guys ever go to jail. The big financial concerns tanked the world’s economy and nobody’s even been indicted, let alone jailed.
State and local government pensions aren’t the only ones in trouble.
Corporate pensions, too, are woefully underfunded, and the federal agency that insures them against losses is facing a dangerous deficit that taxpayers may end up covering. One government watchdog agency says the federal insurance funds are at “high risk” of failure. Moreover, the Obama administration’s proposal to fix this is meeting stiff resistance from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business interests.
The little-known federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. insures roughly 27,500 corporate defined-benefit pensions, covering 44 million U.S. workers. These plans, popular in the public sector but increasingly rare in the private economy, promise workers fixed monthly retirement income, often equivalent to a final year’s salary or an average salary over the last few years of work.
Maybe the states should just get a change in US law and turn over their pensions to the federal government.
[State Sen. John Sullivan] said about a decade ago river otters were reintroduced in Western Illinois, but now they have migrated to ponds and are eliminating the fish population.
After contacting the Department of Natural resources, Sullivan said they were on board with a bill that would create a trapping season for river otters to help curb the population growth in ponds.
“It’s estimated in Western Illinois the river otter population is over 10,000, and in a few years it will be 30,000. They don’t have any natural predators,” Sullivan said.
* Do people really talk like this in the real world? Weird, man…
Newsradio 620 in Milwaukee has a shocking story about the dirty underground efforts by the Chicago political machine loyal to Rahm Emanuel and President Obama that is apparently applying its dark arts again, this time assisting the leftist, fleebagging Wisconsin State Senators in their efforts to thwart the democratic process in the Badger State.
Aside from the bizarre hyperbole, what’s the big crime? Well, a Wisconsin Republican claims that some folks connected with Obama’s past campaign are now helping with the recall of 8 GOP state Senators. Even if true, what does it prove? Lots of people worked for Obama two years ago, and they need to keep making money. Hacks gotta eat, too.
Federal officials said later Wednesday that the checks are in the mail.
The clerk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois told The Associated Press that vouchers from Blagojevich’s attorneys for their work were submitted in mid-February, and Michael Dobbins said the checks were cut Wednesday and were going out in the mail.
He said payments to federal defenders have been complicated by budget disputes on Capitol Hill.
Rod Blagojevich wants to cancel his upcoming retrial, asking to be sentenced immediately, however, prosecutors and the judge would have to approve of the request.
That’s a tall order, considering 20 counts remain pending against the former governor, including that he tried selling President Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat. Blagojevich narrowly missed conviction on those counts, some of the most significant in the case, in the first trial with jurors voting 11-1 on many of the charges.
Blagojevich’s lawyers filed a five-page motion Wednesday morning asking to proceed to sentencing right away and avoid a retrial that’s set to begin April 20.
“A second prosecution of this case is an irresponsible use of taxpayer funds in light of the current economic crisis and Blagojevich’s imminent sentencing on the conviction from the first trial,” lawyers wrote in the motion. […]
“There’s charges pending, the only way they get out of those charges is if the government drops them,” says Michael Ettinger, a federal defense lawyer who represented Blagojevich’s brother, Robert. Charges against Rob Blagojevich were dropped after the last trial. [Emphasis added.]
He’d be looking at a maximum of five years if he was sentenced on that one charge.
At the first trial, defense counsel were funded by the Friends of Blagojevich campaign fund – not by taxpayers. The campaign fund was exhausted toward the end of trial and counsel for Blagojevich received only partial compensation (one-fifth of payment) for the last month of trial, July 2010. […]
To date, defense counsel have been working on the Blagojevich case for almost nine months without pay. This has caused a significant hardship and has deprived Blagojevich of his right to effective assistance of counsel as required by the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution.
The financial hardship this has caused defense counsel has created a vast inequity in this case between the government and the defense. […]
As such, preparation for retrial is not complete and will not be complete by April 20, 2011.
* Several legal analysts were quoted this morning. Let’s start with Fox Chicago…
FOX Chicago News Legal Analyst Larry Yellen said he didn’t expect the judge to grant the motion. Judge James Zagel throughout the case has kept the trial mostly on schedule and has denied previous, similar motions. Yellen said it may be a publicity ploy, or the lawyers could simply be trying to get paid.
Legal analyst Karen Conti also said she didn’t expect the motion to go anywhere, but it did seem to be an appeal to the public.
“This is about money, except the government is supposed to be footing the bill for this trial. There’s a couple possibilities here. It could be a legitimate request. From Blagojevich’s attorneys’ view, ‘we do not look good in a retrial and if you are convicted you face many many years in prison.’” [said WGN-TV political analyst Paul Lisnek.]
Lisnek noted that the government generally wins in the retrial of similar cases and said Blagojevich may fare better facing sentencing on the earlier conviction.
WGN-TV legal analyst Terry Sullivan agreed that Blagojevich’s money problems could be behind the lastest request.
“He hasn’t been able to rent office space, hasn’t been able to hire investigators–all the things that were pretty much stripped from him for the preparation for a second trial because of the fact that he’s now working off public funds,” he said.
* Meanwhile, a guy who cooperated with the feds for years on the Tony Rezko matter just pled guilty to two criminal counts that had expired under the statute of limitations…
A onetime Tony Rezko business partner, who once was a Chicago cop and chief executive of a company that won a $50 million security contract in Iraq, has pleaded guilty to federal charges in Chicago after he cooperated with authorities. […]
[Daniel T. Frawley] admitted to obtaining a fraudulent $4.5 million loan from First Bank in Missouri and making false representations to the bank in 1999 and 2000.
Frawley also admits to structuring a series of withdrawals from another bank, taking out a total of $87,000 at less than $10,000 each time. He said he did it to avoid disclosure requirements, which kick in at $10,000.
The conduct charged is beyond the statute of limitations and his plea deal indicates Frawley agreed to waive the statute as part of a deal. Frawley could have faced more than five years but prosecutors will recommend 18 months, according to his deal. Frawley’s lawyers can ask for less time as part of the agreement.
That’s some pretty serious stuff to waive a statute and agree to plead guilty. But the feds are just relentless, which is why nobody figures they’ll let Blagojevich have his way and be sentenced immediately.
A major contractor for the city of Chicago was spared extra time behind bars Tuesday when he was sentenced to two years of probation for failing to give minority subcontractors their share of business on two projects.
Robert Blum, 58, pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud Tuesday.
In the plea agreement, Cook County Judge Kevin Sheehan ordered Blum to pay a 20,000 fine. Blum’s Castle Construction Corp. also must pay a $20,000 fine.
Blum is scheduled to surrender to federal officials March 23 to begin serving a two-year sentence for his August conviction for filing false income tax returns. Blum was also ordered to pay $2.1 million in restitution after he admitted that he spent $1.3 million in company money on his palatial home in New Lenox, according to the IRS.
Federal records show Blum had sought a break on his tax-evasion sentence by asking U.S. District Judge James Zagel to consider his cooperation with federal authorities investigating Kelly.
But federal prosecutors objected, saying in a filing in December that “the government had concerns regarding (Blum’s) truthfulness and his value as a potential witness” and “had concluded not to call him as a witness in any trial against Mr. Kelly.”
According to state investigators, Castle was awarded a $9.8 million contract in 2006 to build several bus- and train-washing facilities for the Chicago Transit Authority. Blum told the agency he had subcontracted $2.96 million of work to minority-owned Mid-City, but the subcontract with that firm was actually only $550,000.
In 2007, Castle won a $9 million contract with the Chicago Public Building Commission to build a new fire station in the Edgewater neighborhood, investigators said. Blum told the commission that a minority-owned business would perform about one-fourth of the work, but Castle instead hired a non-minority firm.
* Related…
* Blagojevich and the Complexity of Jury Instructions: Jury instructions have clearly become so burdensome and so complex that juries like the Blagojevich jury can hardly be expected to weed through them and appreciate their detail. With lives literally at stake, what options do federal judges have to “dumb down” what in many districts are mandatory jury instructions? And how much can one really do to reduce “legalese” in jury instructions that must be precise and hew to the language of the statute and of previously used instructions if they are to stand up on appeal?
* Burr Ridge Mansion of Former Blago Fundraiser Sold at Foreclosure - The mansion owned by Christopher Kelly went for $1.6 million at foreclosure sale.
* Fired IDOT workers settle lawsuit - Sixteen employees were found to have been let go for political reasons
Gov. Pat Quinn is expected to sign historic legislation abolishing the death penalty in Illinois on Wednesday, according to the House sponsor and sources familiar with the governor’s plans.
The Democratic governor on Tuesday quietly invited death penalty opponents to a private bill-signing ceremony scheduled for late Wednesday morning in his Springfield office. Quinn’s office confirmed that the governor has an event at the Capitol on Wednesday to announce his decision on the death penalty measure.
“They point-blank told me they were signing the bill (Wednesday),” sponsoring Rep. Karen Yarbrough told the Tribune.
Quinn has until March 18 to sign or veto the legislation or it automatically becomes law. He was poised to deal with it late last week but decided to continue listening to both sides of the issue. On Monday, Quinn told reporters he planned to act this week.
Quinn’s office would not divulge the governor’s intentions nor did it release his Wednesday schedule, saying an itinerary for the day’s events likely would be forthcoming early in the day.
“Unfortunately, I can’t confirm anything for tomorrow,” said Quinn spokeswoman Annie Thompson late Tuesday.
* But shortly after 7 o’clock this morning, they sent out this press release…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, March 9, 2011
CONTACT: Grant Klinzman (o. 312-814-3158; c. 217-299-2448)
Annie Thompson (o. 217-782-7355; c. 217-720-1853)
GOVERNOR’S PUBLIC SCHEDULE **Wednesday, March 9, 2011**
SPRINGFIELD - Governor Pat Quinn will hold a press availability.
WHO: Governor Quinn
WHEN: 12 p.m.
WHERE: Governor’s Office
207 Statehouse
2nd and Monroe
Springfield, 62706
ADDITIONAL: The availability will be streamed live on www.Illinois.gov.
Due to space constraints, press credentials will be required.
They usually don’t stream press avails live on the Interwebtubies, so that’s a pretty darned good indication that this one is important. Watch it here.
Not clear are Quinn’s intentions for those now on death row, a group of 15 men that includes serial killer Brian Dugan, who was convicted in the 1983 murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico.
The repeal measure Yarbrough and state Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago) got through the Legislature in January is silent about the fate of those sentenced to death since former Gov. George Ryan’s set aside the death sentences of the 167 inmates on death row in 2003.
“I don’t know if there will be action on the 15,” Raoul said.
Yarbrough also was unclear on that question and said the Quinn aide with whom she spoke Tuesday did not address it.
Among those the governor consulted with were prosecutors, murder victims’ families, death penalty opponents and religious leaders. Quinn even heard from retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and met with Sister Helen Prejean, the inspiration for the movie “Dead Man Walking.”
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan appealed directly to Quinn to veto the bill, as did several county prosecutors and victims’ families. They said safeguards, including videotaped interrogations and easier access to DNA evidence, were in place to prevent innocent people from being wrongly executed.
But death penalty opponents argued that there was still no guarantee that an innocent person couldn’t be put to death. Even Quinn’s own lieutenant governor, Sheila Simon, a former southern Illinois prosecutor, asked him to abolish capital punishment.
Illinois’ last execution was in 1999, a year before then-Gov. George Ryan imposed a moratorium on capital punishment after the death sentences of 13 men were overturned. Ryan cleared death row before leaving office in 2003 by commuting the death sentences of 167 inmates to life in prison.
* Walmart is helping push back against threats by Amazon’s affiliates and others to pull out of Illinois if Gov. Quinn signs a controversial tax reform into law. From a press release…
Walmart today is issuing an open invitation to all of those Illinois online businesses – known as affiliates– to explore the opportunity to join Walmart.com’s Affiliate Network. This invitation comes as Amazon.com and Overstock.com threaten to terminate their relationships with all Illinois affiliates should H.B. 3659 (Main Street Fairness Act) be signed into law.
“We applaud and support the members of the General Assembly and Governor Quinn for their leadership in supporting this retail fairness legislation,” said Julie Murphy, Senior Vice President of Operations for Walmart “ This legislation will create a level playing field for online-only retailers and brick and mortar retailers”.
Walmart is committed to supporting the affiliate programs which help to drive Walmart.com’s online business. It currently partners with more than 45 Illinois based affiliates representing millions of dollars in revenue. Walmart will continue to collect and remit all sales taxes due on all Walmart.com sales to alleviate all regulatory burdens from its customers. Any affiliate interested in working with Walmart.com should visit www.affiliates.walmart.com.
Because online merchants don’t often have a physical presence in the state, the bill taxes them via affiliate marketers, like Storm’s FatWallet.
If Quinn signs the proposal into law, many retailers that do business with his website will terminate their contracts to avoid paying the tax, Storm said.
“I started (my business) in Wisconsin, but moved to Illinois because it is home,” said Storm, whose website is based in Rockton. “I can literally see Wisconsin from my window – it’s five miles away. If I have to move, I will.”
Scott Kluth, CEO of CouponCabin, joined Storm in urging a veto. Kluth’s website operates the same way as FatWallet. It employs 54.
Chicago is quickly becoming a U.S. hub for online coupon and deal companies, and the trend started long before wildly successful Groupon was even conceived. Today, the Chicago region is headquarters for dozens of coupon and deal websites.
Sites include some of America’s biggest, such as Groupon.com and CouponCabin.com. They include some of the oldest, such as FatWallet.com, circa 1999, and MrRebates.com, 2002. They include newbies started this year by a single person and another launched this year by one of the largest coupon companies in the world.
“Chicago is the cradle of civilization for the daily-deal industry,” said Dan Hess, chief executive of Local Offer Network and Chicago-based deal aggregator Dealradar.com. “It gained an early lead and continues to lead the pack.”
Among daily-deal group-buying sites, similar to Groupon, Chicago is the No. 1 city, with 43 such headquarters. That beats New York and San Francisco, according to Dealradar.com.
* That CouponCabin.com company is growing super fast. From a press release…
CouponCabin.com, a premier online coupon resource, marked two significant milestones in the first month of 2011: CouponCabin now features more than 150,000 coupons and deals for 3,000+ stores.
CouponCabin.com has enjoyed strong traffic in 2011, building off an extremely strong holiday shopping season. According to online research firm comScore, in November 2010, CouponCabin.com enjoyed a 400% increase in traffic over October with 8.8 million visitors, only 12% behind Groupon.com.
You can add Nevada to the list of states trying to come to steal business from Illinois.
The Nevada Development Authority is airing a TV ad all month trying to coax businesses here to go west. It’s the latest in a list of states actively trying to get businesses to bail out of the Land of Lincoln.
* The NDA focuses on recruiting business to the Las Vegas region. It’s pretty aggressive about personal and corporate income taxes, of which there are none in that state.
*** UPDATE *** The good folks at CBS2 helped me find the Illinois ad online. Watch…
* The Question: How is Illinois superior to Las Vegas?
* Gov. Pat Quinn reacted harshly to skepticism yesterday from a spokesman for the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District that Illinois can find the money to build a commuter rail line from the Van Buren Street Station to Balmoral Park racetrack. Quoth the spokesman…
“We still have difficulties understanding where they’re coming up with the startup funds, so we don’t know how this will impact us,” NICTD spokesman John Parsons said. “It might not.”
Quinn, while acknowledging that startup funds would not be set until the Illinois General Assembly gives him a capital bill to consider later this year, said he didn’t appreciate the attitude.
“I think Indiana would be better off taking more of a team approach and working with us,” the governor said. “I don’t think criticizing Illinois all the time is a good idea.”
When a University of Illinois student was denied admission to a dual-degree program last fall, her parents turned to their state legislator for help and sparked a series of events reminiscent of the admissions scandal that rocked the state’s flagship campus in 2009.
At the request of state Sen. Dan Duffy’s office, the university’s chief lobbyist in September sent a letter to admissions staff regarding the denial. Her office also followed up with a phone call a few weeks later. The inquiries were logged on a list that tracks when outside parties insert themselves into the admissions process, one of the post-scandal reforms.
Tribune reporter Jodi Cohen is pathetic. A frustrated SENIOR at U of I contacted my office. The student qualified for a double major and was not allowed to receive it. We contacted the Dept.of Higher Education per state policy. Cohen is now saying we were using “clout” and are part of “Admission Scandal”? Cohen never even bothered to interview me for her story before printing the manufactured nonsense!!
The Senator has apparently blocked me from accessing his FB site. He reportedly suggested in a caucus meeting the other day that no Senate Republicans should ever speak to me. Yes, he has quite the little temper. Anyway, a good friend sent me the quote and the screen shot…
“The big difference between Mr. Cappleman and me is that I’ve committed to spending $1.3 million dollars to put more police on our streets,” Phelan said, referring to discretionary funds alderman control. “Mr. Cappleman wants to spend it on decorator flower pots and benches.”
I wonder what she’ll say when shown this letter to the editor by Mr. Cappleman…
One cost-saving measure would be to curtail costly and aggressive medical treatment for patients near death.
Medicare costs have to be controlled. Maybe using the skills of ethicists in providing direction on cutting health-care costs would be an answer to this moral dilemma.
Death panels!!!
* Trouble in paradise? Rep. Lou Lang usually carries the gaming expansion bill in the House, while Sen. Terry Link handles the duties in the Senate. Lang’s latest bill just includes more slots, no new casinos. Link is already turning thumbs down…
Lang will begin talks on his plan in the House. In the Senate, Sen. Terry Link of Waukegan typically sponsors gambling-expansion plans.
And the plans Link carries typically include new casinos, including one in Lake County.
“I don’t think he’s going to have any support from the industry,” Link said of Lang’s plan.
* The SJ-R editorial today is pretty harsh on those who’ve been hollering about Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s opinion that the names of FOID card holders should be made public…
We’re accustomed to gun rights advocates being vocal, rigid and determined in their pursuit of what they believe are their Second Amendment rights. We are not deaf to their concerns. In fact, we recently have called for Illinois to adopt a law defining the right of FOID holders to carry concealed firearms.
But this is not a gun ownership issue and the negative reaction to last week’s ruling has been nothing short of hysteria. This decision is about open government and preventing a government body, in this case the Illinois State Police, from keeping secret information it gathers on the public’s behalf.
That business about the dangers of releasing public records is a stretch, though. Gun enthusiasts, lobbyists and some lawmakers are waving their arms, warning that if the FOID records are released, bad guys will use them to determine which houses can be safely burglarized because their occupants don’t have guns. Or they’ll use them to determine which houses are occupied by permit holders so they can break in and steal those guns.
Those arguments came up in Florida, too, though nobody could name a time when anything like that actually happened. But never mind. Sooner or later someone’s bound to get hurt, the gun crowd says, and when it happens, it will be Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s fault for telling the ISP to hand over the records.
What a crock. Their quarrel is with the public records law, not the attorney general.
* Gov. Pat Quinn signed a new redistricting reform bill into law yesterday. The signing ceremony was held in Chinatown, which got the most focus at the presser…
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation Monday that is designed to protect minority voting rights.
The governor says the law will prevent a community’s political make-up from being weakened by dividing into multiple voting districts.
Chinatown is one such community. It is currently divided into four parts of city wards and three state senate districts.
But Asian-American populations are much higher in a few other Senate districts on the North Side and the North Shore. Asian-American’s make up 19.4 percent of Sen. Ira Silverstein’s 8th Senate District and 11.7 percent of Sen. Heather Steans’ district, which is directly East. The 9th Senate District is straight North of Steans and is represented by Sen. Jeff Schoenberg. It’s Asian-American population is 8.9 percent. All of those have higher percentages of Asian-Americans than any of the Chinatown districts. There are also some big numbers in the collars as well.
The bill provides that during the redistricting process political territories “shall be drawn to create crossover districts, coalition districts, or influence districts.” Here’s how the legislation defines those three areas:
* A crossover district is one where “a racial minority or language minority constitutes less than a majority of the voting-age population but where this minority, at least potentially, is large enough to elect the candidate of its choice with help from voters who are members of the majority and who cross over to support the minority’s preferred candidate.”
* A coalition district means a district where “more than one group of racial minorities or language minorities may form a coalition to elect the candidate of the coalition’s choice.”
* And an influence district is one “where a racial minority or language minority can influence the outcome of an election even if its preferred candidate cannot be elected.”
Chinatown would be located in a new “influence district.” It’s very possible that new North Side “influence districts” would be drawn as well. Koreans, Indians, Pakistanis, etc. abound in those parts. Silverstein’s district is my favorite area of Chicago, by the way. You want diversity? Go there. Walk a block and you’re in another country. Walk another block and you’re in another continent. I love it.
“One of the purposes of the law is to make sure that our racial minorities, our language minorities, citizens who live in a particular area, get a fair chance to elect a person of their choice,” [Gov. Pat Quinn] said.
The federal Voting Rights Act requires map drawers to give special protection to districts that contain mostly minorities. The state law aims to also protect the interest of minorities — defined by race or those who speak the same language — who might make up less than 50 percent a district.
According to the state’s Constitution, districts must be “compact, contiguous and substantially equal in population.” The contiguous requirement should be easy to follow, according to political scientist Chris Mooney, but in order to keep populations of a certain ethnicity in the same districts, the districts could end up looking like an octopus.
“Districts look, they have looked pretty weird for various reasons — political reasons and trying to develop demographics profiles in particular,” said Mooney, a professor of political studies with the University of Illinois’ Institute of Government and Public Affairs. “But there’s only so much you can do given how many people live where and who they are.”
Population bloomed in Kendall County by more than 25 percent during the past 10 years. Its Hispanic numbers grew, though that demographic still makes up a small percentage of the total population, according to Kendall County Democratic Party Chair Chuck Sutcliff. To group enough Hispanics together so they could have a significant impact on elections would take creative map drawing, Sutcliff said.
“It would have to be a strange, strange, (district.) Of course in redistricting the possibility of a strange looking representative area isn’t unusual. There have always been those kinds of unusual strange ties of one population to another,” he said.
And that’s the rub, according to Mooney. There are so many facets to redistricting that one issue might dominate in one district while several issues might go into forming another.
“There are many things that people want to see in districts. The problem is that they sometimes conflict with one another and the ones that are the least required by law and least clear cut, like compactness, those suffer,” Mooney said.
All true. Plus, there are things like where to put that Chinatown “influence.” Does it go in a black or a Latino district? Considering low voter turnout among Latinos, Chinatown might have more influence in their district. But Latinos might not want to take the risk of losing a seat.
* Another problem with the new law is that reformers were upset with the “transparency” provisions. The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform sums it up…
The new law calls on lawmakers to hold a mere four public hearings in the state before they can pass a map dictating the borders for the Illinois House and Senate districts.
The bill doesn’t mandate that lawmakers share maps of those new districts – which will stand for the next 10 years, until after next Census – before they pass them, nor does it create opportunities for the public to involve themselves directly in the boundary-drawing process.
But as the legislation’s Democratic sponsors explained to us during debates on this measure in the Capitol, there’s nothing to prevent either lawmakers (or the governor) for going above and beyond the disappointing minimums that SB 3976 establishes.
* Related…
* WGN: Gov. Quinn signs redistricting legislation in Chinatown
* Press Release: Governor Quinn Signs Major Redistricting Reforms - New Law Protects Minority Community Voting Rights; Increases Openness and Transparency in Redistricting Process
* VIDEO: Quinn On The Illinois Voting Rights Act of 2011
As part of our efforts to modernize and reform Illinois’ tax code, we should broaden our tax base in order to lower tax rates and create a fair system for all.
Yesterday, as part of a speech to the City Club of Chicago, I gave a state revenue presentation. One of many points made is that our income tax is unique because unlike other states we have a very large exemption for retirement income. Of the states with income taxes, Illinois is one of two that doesn’t tax any retirement income. Putting aside politics for a moment, I noted that if this exemption didn’t exist, it would mean an additional $1.6 billion in the state treasury.
I’m fully aware of the difficult politics of taxation. The only context in which such a policy could become reality would be if there was widespread bipartisan support, key protections for low-income retirees, and that the additional revenue would be used to lower overall taxes.
There is no formal proposal to advance.
In other words, fuhgetaboutit.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* I kinda get the feeling that Senate President John Cullerton didn’t expect such a huge media reaction to his trial balloon yesterday about taxing retirement income. Look at how he zig-zagged after he made his original comments…
Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) said he would exclude Social Security income and avoid targeting those lower-income seniors who “don’t have much of a retirement income.”
Cullerton’s trial balloon would affect retirement income for those under 65. And in a late-afternoon committee hearing in Springfield, Cullerton suggested applying the retirement tax to those seniors making $100,000 or more.
“If the Republicans want to talk about tax reform, which will be revenue neutral, I’m all in. If they want to talk about, perhaps, taxing some of that retirement income — maybe tax retirement income up to age 65 — if we want to expand the tax base and sales taxes [as Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel has proposed] — we can do that, then lower overall rates. I’m all in favor of that. That would be tax reform,” Cullerton said following a speech to the City Club.
Exclude Social Security, avoid taxing low-income seniors, then maybe tax seniors who earn more than $100K a year. He’s pretty much all over the place.
In 2008, Illinois taxpayers received $37.3 billion in retirement income, including pensions, retirement annuities and Social Security, according to the nonpartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. If taxed at 5 percent, that amount of retirement income would generate $1.9 billion. That figure would drop to $1.5 billion if Social Security income is not taxed, the commission’s calculations showed.
Revenues would drop dramatically if only the highest retirement incomes were taxed. For example, imposing the tax on everything over $50,000 in pension income would generate an additional $276 million. Taxing everything over $100,000 in pension income would raise just $70 million, said Sue Hofer, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Revenue. [Emphasis added.]
Murphy and Sen. Kirk Dillard, R-Hinsdale, said they are concerned that additional taxes would force high-income seniors to flee to Florida, which does not have an income tax. They said an exodus of retirees would be costly to Illinois because the state would lose sales tax revenue as people spend money in other states.
Bob Gallo, senior state director for AARP Illinois, said the state cannot in good conscience ask seniors to pay more when it is cutting services for the elderly.
* Gov. Pat Quinn was not so blunt. Instead, he rambled…
“I think it’s important that we always be open to reviewing the tax code. Matter of fact, I proposed in my budget address that we have a commission in Illinois that’s focused on fairness and economic growth, and looking at our tax code, that promotes fairness to everyday taxpayers and also economic growth for all of us, so I think everything should be looked at,” Quinn told reporters. “How we go about it is obviously something we have to work together on.”
Among the 41 states with a broad-based income tax, 36 offer exclusions for some or all specifically identified state or federal pension income or both,, a retirement income exclusion, or a tax credit targeted at the elderly…. The five states that offer none of these are California, Nebraska, North Dakota, Rhode Island and Vermont. …
The states that offer an exclusion for all state and local government pension income are Alabama, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New York and Pennsylvania….
The District of Columbia and 27 states with income taxes provide a full exclusion for Social Security benefits (the list includes Illinois) …. The remaining 15 states with broad-based income taxes tax Social Security to some extent.
Ten states exclude all federal, state and local pension income from taxation – Alabama, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New York and Pennsylvania….
These 10 states differ on the taxation of retirement income from private-sector sources. … Illinois and Mississippi exclude income from qualified retirement plans.
* Also, for the second time in a week, Gov. Quinn said he hadn’t yet read the Senate Democratic analysis of pension law which claims that it’s unconstitutional to reduce pension benefits for current workers. He did seem to say that he’s open to some changes, as long as they’re legal. Listen…
* Brady worried state not yet ready to escape recession: “They increased the income tax and that takes away about one week’s pay from everyone in addition to what they were already taking,” he said. “Much of that money is going to bond and interest payments to investors who aren’t in Illinois.”
* Illinois preparing to comply with national health care reform
* Daily Show correspondent John Oliver filed a dispatch last night from a “savage territory” and “corrupt wasteland” which will be familiar to all of us…
The premise of the sketch was that Oliver was in a place called “Ill-in-o-is, a desolate lawless region,” and his “reporting” was in the style of a war correspondent who had found himself in a strange and dangerous land.
After doing such things as treating a fast food takeout window as if it was a military checkpoint, Oliver revealed that he’d “arranged a meeting with a notorious former warlord” because “apparently no one knows the region better than him.”
* Walker scoffs at Democratic senators’ attempt to meet, negotiate - Legislators deny governor’s claims that they are divided, want to return to Wisconsin
* Fines fail to faze exiled Indiana Democrats: Over in Illinois, the giant television satellite trucks that marked the Democrats’ arrival and sat in the Comfort Suites parking lot for several days in late February were gone Monday. So, too, were most of the media who for days had juggled laptops, cell phones and notebooks in their temporary office of the hotel lobby.
Illinois Senate President John Cullerton today suggested the state should start taxing the retirement income of senior citizens who are able to afford it. […]
“It would just be a matter of fairness,” said Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat.
Details are still being worked out, but Cullerton said the state could bring in could bring in upward of $1.6 billion a year. Cullerton said the money could be used to provide tax relief elsewhere, whether that be lowering the corporate income tax rate, reworking sales tax rates or some other idea. […]
“I think it’s important that we always be open to reviewing the tax code,” Quinn said, restating his call for a commission to review the state’s tax laws with attention to fairness to “everyday taxpayers” and economic growth. “I think everything should be looked at. You know, how we go about it is obviously something we have to work together on.”
Thoughts?
*** UPDATE *** I’ll have more for subscribers tomorrow, but Cullerton just told me the idea behind this proposal would be to lower overall rates. None of the money raised from tax retirement income would be used for programs. Instead, it would be used to lower the overall income tax rate.
* Karen Lewis, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union, fired back in an op-ed…
Tribune: Fire teachers faster.
Union: The Tribune claims that it can take two to five years for a teacher to be dismissed. Actually, the average is about one year. What the editorial board failed to mention is that once the teacher completes but still fails supervised remediation, that teacher is no longer in the classroom. Also unacknowledged is that CPS always appeals dismissal cases that are overturned by the Illinois State Board of Education, prolonging the process. That gets expensive when you factor in back pay for the years teachers are kept out of the classroom.
* She also included this surprising stat…
Not many know this, but 50 percent of teachers leave CPS within five years. In my 23 years of teaching, nine times out of 10 when I ask a teacher why she or he is leaving the answer is, “It’s not the kids. It’s the system.”
* From an e-mail exchange with the IFT…
The new teacher evaluation system that is being developed will make a larger impact on teacher quality than any changes to the dismissal hearing process. This new system will force administrators to do a better job evaluating teachers and the student growth model (test scores are a part of this) will provide a much more solid case for why someone is or isn’t doing the job at a level that is satisfactory. We have always said that when a district has a good case, a teacher usually resigns.
More importantly, that new evaluation system will also help teachers identify ways they can do the job even better. At the Ed. reform hearings, even the business guys said the number one purpose for evaluations is to help your employees improve.
* Meanwhile, Catalyst reports that limiting teacher tenure and all but abolishing their right to strike is dead at the Statehouse. Instead, Senate negotiators are working with all sides to come up with other reforms…
The goal, sources say, is for “performance” – as measured by students’ test scores and other types of assessments – to count more in a dismissal or assignment decision than mere years of experience as a teacher. Tenure will still count, but in a subordinate way.
From such general concepts the negotiators plow into the details, which can become a bit sticky.
* But Progress Illinois isn’t convinced that the tenure/strike bill is dead…
Still, the all-of-a-sudden powerful group, Stand for Children raised big bucks, contributed heavily to influential lawmakers, and hired major lobbyists. Oh, and Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel supports the proposal as well. This bill isn’t dead; it’s just sleeping.
Unions will never forget how Speaker Madigan rammed through a hostile pension reform bill when the unions thought they had a deal going with Senate President Cullerton to save the same amount of money. They’re not letting their guards down.
* Related…
* Study: Single-school districts expensive - Cost per student is up to $2,000 more than in multi-school districts
* State targets number of superintendents, salaries
* Interim CPS chief plans for the long haul but hasn’t talked to Rahm Emanuel - CPS chief Terry Mazany doesn’t expect to be in charge long, but he’s reversing predecessor Ron Huberman and leaving Rahm Emanuel a new education plan
* Cepeda: New school reform empowers parents, but so does ‘No Child’
* Staunton plans to start drug, alcohol testing: Students at Staunton High School could be tested for drugs and alcohol under reasonable suspicion, starting with the 2011-2012 school year, Staunton High School Principal Ed Fletcher said.
*** UPDATE 2 *** The walkout concept spreads to Illinois…
Dolton officials have slashed a contract proposed for a firm headed by the mayor’s daughter from more than $1 million to just $2 after questions from the Tribune.
And taking a nod from Wisconsin protesters, two Dolton trustees said they plan to boycott tonight’s village board meeting, where trustees are set to vote on the proposed contract — and every meeting until the proposal is taken off the table.
Without the two trustees, the village board won’t have a quorum and therefore can’t vote.
“We’ve got the same players with just different titles and more money,” said Trustee Deborah Green, who along with Trustee Willie Lowe plans to boycott meetings.
Senate Dems late [last night] sought to downplay Minority Leader Mark Miller’s comments that they plan to return to the Capitol soon for a vote on the budget repair bill to put their GOP colleagues on record in the face of polls that show the legislation is not sitting well with the public. […]
But a Miller spokesman and two of his Dem colleagues insisted nothing has really changed for the caucus and Dems continue to seek alterations to the repair bill.
Sen. Bob Jauch, who along with Sen. Tim Cullen has been part of the negotiations with the governor’s staff, said Dems have known all along they would have to return to Wisconsin at some point. That position hasn’t changed in the past two weeks, and he said Dems want to force their Republican colleagues to show the public whether they stand with the governor or with workers when it comes to the proposed changes.
“I think he’s speaking the truth that at some point – and I don’t know when soon is – at some point we have to say we’ve done all we can,” Jauch said. […]
Miller spokesman Mike Browne insisted there was nothing really new in Miller’s comments and that Dems continue trying to keep the lines of communication open in what has been a fluid situation.
[ *** End Of Updates *** ]
* We don’t know when the cheeseheads are leaving, but the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the decision has been made to go back North…
Playing a game of political chicken, Democratic senators who fled Wisconsin to stymie restrictions on public-employee unions said Sunday they planned to come back from exile soon, betting that even though their return will allow the bill to pass, the curbs are so unpopular they’ll taint the state’s Republican governor and legislators. […]
Sen. Mark Miller said he and his fellow Democrats intend to let the full Senate vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget-repair” bill, which includes the proposed limits on public unions’ collective-bargaining rights. The bill, which had been blocked because the missing Democrats were needed for the Senate to have enough members present to vote on it, is expected to pass the Republican-controlled chamber.
He said he thinks recent polls showing voter discontent with Mr. Walker over limits on bargaining rights have been “disastrous” for the governor and Republicans and give Democrats more leverage to seek changes in a broader two-year budget bill Mr. Walker proposed Tuesday. […]
Mr. Miller declined to say how soon the Democratic senators, who left for Illinois on Feb. 17, would return. He said the group needed to address several issues first—including the resolution Senate Republicans passed last week that holds the Democrats in contempt and orders police to detain them when they return to Wisconsin.
One of the Democrats is seven months pregnant, which weighed on the decision.
The decision by House Democrats to stay away from the Statehouse will start affecting their bank accounts this week. House Speaker Brian Bosma announced last week that absent lawmakers will be subject to fines of $250 per day beginning Monday. There has been no sign from Democrats that they will be back in the chamber when it is called to session Monday afternoon.
Bosma says the decision to issue the monetary penalties wasn’t taken “lightly or flippantly,” but Republicans have “done everything we can do to try to encourage the minority members to return to perform the duties they’ve sworn to perform.”
Democrat Kreg Battles tells our partners at Network Indiana/WIBC what is really needed “language that will bring people together” and the fines will only serve to “continue the divide.”
Once the Wisconsin Dems go home, the pressure will really ramp up on the Hoosiers to follow suit.
* Related…
* Poll: Most Want Gov. Walker To Reach Compromise: When they were asked if Gov. Walker should strike a compromise with Democrats and unions over this repair bill, 65 percent of respondents said he should, while 33 percent said that Gov. Walker should stand strong no matter how long the protests last.
* Democratic legislators embracing tactic to gain leverage: Fleeing
* Indiana Democrats try to explain boycott in Web meetings, calls: “The longer it goes on, the more heat there is, not just for Democrats to come back, but for the Republicans to negotiate,” said Senate Minority Leader Vi Simpson, D-Bloomington. “The public temperament for these kinds of things … there is a finite end to it.”
* Indiana House sets $250 daily fines for boycotters: “The atmosphere is suddenly as hostile as when we left,” he said in a telephone conference with reporters. “We thought there was improvement, but obviously not.”
* The Tribune has run some interesting stories recently on the subject of crime and punishment…
Bill Larson was shocked to learn that his sister’s killer would soon be allowed to walk freely around the grounds of the Elgin Mental Health Center.
Larson has lived uneasily with the knowledge that his family’s home is barely six miles from the facility where his nephew Karl Sneider is receiving treatment after being found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 2003 decapitation slaying of his mother.
A Cook County judge’s decision in December to increase Sneider’s freedom only heightened his alarm, Larson said. Sneider has received permission to take unsupervised walks at the mental health center. He also will be allowed to make supervised trips to the library or go shopping — privileges often granted to patients on the pathway to possible early release.
The judge’s action angered Larson, who said he learned of the relaxed restrictions from a prosecutor. He would have preferred to find out, he said, from the Department of Human Services. As the state agency responsible for treating Sneider, it is only required by law to notify those relatives who request status updates whenever their loved ones’ killers are allowed to temporarily leave state hospitals or are released from custody.
Sneider wants to be notified when the killer’s status changes. It may not seem unreasonable, but it could cause a bureaucratic nightmare.
* The paper also ran an editorial the other day which focused on the heartbreak of families left behind facing murderers’ ludicrous parole hearings…
Every couple of years, we’re forced to revisit the horror of May 4, 1976 — the day Patricia Columbo and her lover murdered her parents and her 13-year-old brother in Elk Grove Village.
Columbo’s father was shot four times and bludgeoned with a lamp. Her mother was shot once between the eyes, and her throat was slit. Her brother was shot once and stabbed repeatedly with scissors. All three were found with what looked like cigarette burns on their bodies.
Columbo and Frank De Luca both got 200 to 300 years in prison. They began their sentences in September 1977. Go ahead, do the math.
Then think about this: Patricia Columbo is preparing to ask the Illinois Prisoner Review Board to let her out. It will be her 17th try
You’d think if somebody got 200 years in prison, they wouldn’t be eligible for parole so soon. You’d be wrong. It’s also something to consider when pondering the elimination of the death penalty. Should survivors be forced to endure this crud year after year?
* This crime doesn’t warrant the death penalty, but I hope they find these morons and lock ‘em up…
Vandals fired yellow paint-balls at a statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. located near the Illinois statehouse, Secretary of State Jesse White’s office announced Friday.
The Illinois Secretary of State Police is investigating the vandalism, which was reported around 7 a.m.
According to a statement from White’s office, no other statue or structure in the capitol complex was damaged. The statue has been cleaned and no permanent damage was sustained.
* Meanwhile, the concealed carry issue is really heating up at the Statehouse this year. Subscribers know what’s behind this push, but take it from me it’s quite real…
On Tuesday, a House panel stocked with a number of downstate gun-rights backers is expected to once again approve legislation to make Illinois the 49th state to allow citizens with special training to carry guns in public.
On Thursday, thousands of gun activists are scheduled to descend on the Statehouse for an annual rally organized by the Illinois State Rifle Association.
* Drop the act, sign the bill: But the question remains: is it so important to execute Gacy that Illinois runs the risk of executing someone against whom horrific charges are filed but considerably less evidence exists?
* Gun rights groups to test political strength: State Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, chief co-sponsor of one of six concealed carry bills introduced in the General Assembly this session, predicts some version of concealed carry will pass in the Senate - if it’s called for a vote.
* Bradley backs gun rights legislation: Called House Bill 3, it would keep cities from adding to existing state laws greater restrictions on acquiring, owning or transfer-ring firearms. Bradley said he’s defending Second Amendment rights by backing the bill. A Bradley news release stated 38 municipalities have firearms laws more restrictive than those of the state. Bradley criticized colleagues who favor tougher firearms laws as “gun-grabbing politicians” trying to erode Second Amendment rights at the state level.
* Beverly lawmaker introduces gun-control bill: State Rep. Bill Cunningham (D-Chicago) hopes to give school officials the ability to report troubling behavior in students and prevent people they think could be dangerous from buying guns or ammunition.
* Guns and politics: Traver’s sin? In 2007 he worked with the International Association of Police Chiefs and the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation on a report that recommended anti-violence measures, including firearms restrictions. We’re talking such measures as a ban on armor-piercing bullets and military-style assault weapons.
* Guns and privacy: That business about the dangers of releasing public records is a stretch, though. Gun enthusiasts, lobbyists and some lawmakers are waving their arms, warning that if the FOID records are released, bad guys will use them to determine which houses can be safely burglarized because their occupants don’t have guns. Or they’ll use them to determine which houses are occupied by permit holders so they can break in and steal those guns. Those arguments came up in Florida, too, though nobody could name a time when anything like that actually happened. But never mind. Sooner or later someone’s bound to get hurt, the gun crowd says, and when it happens, it will be Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s fault for telling the ISP to hand over the records. What a crock. Their quarrel is with the public records law, not the attorney general.
* Debating guns is never smooth sailing: Guns are not even good on ships likely to meet pirates because guns “invite escalation,” said Yerkes. “In general, if you shoot at someone, they’re going to shoot back. Firing an RPG at an oil tanker is not that great.” To me, if it’s a bad idea to arm a container vessel going through the Gulf of Aden, it’s a worse idea to arm your bungalow on Golf Road. But that’s just me. If having a MAC-10 makes you feel better, by all means and God Bless America. But does it really upset your world if the magazine in that weapon holds 10 bullets instead of 30? Really? That I can’t understand. Maybe if you explain it in an angry tirade, with lots of personal insults and capital letters, it will begin to make sense. Or maybe not.
* Hey Rahm: Settlements, reversal in cop abuse cases show challenge of next top cop: First, the city has agreed to pay $3 million for the police shooting of Michael Pleasance in 2003. The 23-year-old unarmed man was gunned down by police officer Alvin Weems, who was trying to break up a fight. Although the officer maintained that Pleasance had struggled for his gun, a video released after his family sued the city showed that Pleasance was a bystander.
* Saturday night’s shooting of four killed Devin Dyer, just a week after his 18th birthday - Shooting in Austin neighborhood leaves 1 dead, 3 injured
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column contains a newly revised pension payment number from the Auditor General’s office. Last week, the office claimed the coming fiscal year’s payment, including debt service, would be $5.4 billion. But then AG Bill Holland called me Friday to revise that up to $6.2 billion. The column also corrects a misinterpretation I had on the blog last week about whether unions could negotiate pension benefit changes. Turns out, they can’t…
If you thought Illinois government might get a tiny breather after raising income taxes, think again.
The Illinois House’s new revenue projection for next fiscal year, which begins in July, is $759 million lower than the governor’s. However, the House’s forecast also is $2.2 billion below Gov. Pat Quinn’s projected spending for the coming fiscal year.
Quinn’s proposed budget was whacked last month by Democrats and Republicans alike for its brutal slashing of several human service programs. But even with those Quinn cuts, if the House revenue forecast is used in the final product, they’ll still have to find $2.2 billion in additional spending reductions.
The bad news doesn’t end there. According to some revised numbers issued by the auditor general Friday, next year’s required state pension payment, including debt service, will be $6.2 billion.
Overall, that pension payment will eat up all but about a few hundred million dollars of the recently approved state income tax hike.
And there may not be anything that anybody can do about it.
The Senate Democrats released an opinion by their well-regarded chief legal counsel, Eric Madiar, last week which claimed that pension benefits for current employees are a constitutionally protected contract which cannot be altered.
But could the “contract” with those workers be changed via collective bargaining with government employee unions?
“No,” Madiar says.
As Madiar points out, Illinois’ Public Labor Relations Act does not allow public employee unions to bargain on pension issues. New York’s state law does allow union pension benefit negotiations, Madiar said, adding that New York’s Democratic governor is attempting to strike a deal with the unions to roll back pension benefits.
Madiar says his interpretation of Illinois law is that the pension obligation is an “individual right.” He compared it to the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which he pointed out is not a “pooled” right that can be collectively negotiated away.
Madiar didn’t completely rule out the possibility of a change to the state’s labor relations law to allow unions to bargain away pension benefits on behalf of their members. But he said there likely would also have to be some “acceptance mechanism” by individuals included in the law for it to be constitutionally valid.
It’s also possible, even probable, that if a union did agree to pension givebacks, it could face decertification elections among its various units. Such a move likely then would exempt the newly nonunion employees from any new pension agreement.
In other words, if Madiar’s read is correct, there may be almost nothing that can be done about the state’s pension payment problems.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the House’s five appropriations committees will get to work on the new budget this week, using their chamber’s revenue estimates as a spending cap. So far, the Senate has not come up with its own revenue estimate, but it’s expected to be somewhere around the House’s forecast. But the two chambers aren’t even sure as of yet how they intend to reconcile any differences between their revenue forecasts and appropriations levels.
Quite a few Republicans believe the Democrats’ budget exercise is all for show. The Democratic leaders and the governor, the Republicans predict, eventually will cave to pressure from House and Senate members and activists and agree to use the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability’s revenue projection, which was $1.7 billion higher than the House’s projection. They very well could be right, but, so far, House Speaker Michael Madigan seems bound and determined to proceed with the lower figure.
And if all that news isn’t bad enough for you, the state has borrowed almost $300 million more from the federal government for its unemployment insurance program just since the beginning of January. The state’s total federal debt is close to $2.7 billion. The debt was interest free until a federal loan program expired Jan. 1. The interest payments are now starting to pile up.
Indiana just enacted a law to pay off its $2 billion in debt by 2019, which resulted in a 21 percent average cut in unemployment checks and a 13 percent tax increase for business. Illinois’ unemployment insurance rate already is one of the highest in the country.
Welcome to Illinois, where the lousy news just never seems to stop.
* Keep that revised pension payment in mind when reading this story…
Most states, on average, have to devote only about 4 percent of their budgets to pensions for government retirees.
But Illinois, in the upcoming fiscal year, will devote what amounts to roughly 15 percent of its budget toward the pensions of its retirees.
Illinois’ prepaid tuition program, a 12-year-old financial plan enabling children to attend state colleges at today’s prices when they have grown up, has the deepest shortfall of any such fund in the United States and is plowing money into unconventional — and some financial experts say high-risk — investments to close the gap.
The deficit of the College Illinois Prepaid Tuition Program also is far larger than the fund is declaring. Administrators recently adopted new calculations that mask its size.
The performance of the $1.1-billion fund is crucial to ensuring that the prepaid plan’s nearly 55,000 family participants get what they have paid for. That’s because, unlike in five other states, Illinois doesn’t promise to bail out the fund if it runs short of cash, contrary to what even some savvy investors and financial planners think. Instead, state law requires only that the governor ask the Legislature for help if the program can’t meet its commitments. Lawmakers are under no obligation to act.
* Other budget stuff…
* Lawmakers looking into reforming pension system — again
* City and State employee pensions face the chopping block
* Black Caucus Meets With Quinn To Discuss Human Services Cuts: State Rep. William Davis (D-East Hazel Crest) told Progress Illinois the meeting wasn’t antagonistic. But he didn’t mince words about what he sees as the consequences of the cuts either. The reductions are “a blueprint for African Americans going to the Department of Corrections,” Davis said. Particularly frustrating is the fact that the cuts are on the table now while corrections is reccommended for a 14.6 percent increase in General Revenue Fund dollars in next year’s budget. “We met with the governor … about other places the pain could be spread around instead of just on poor people,” said State Rep. LaShawn Ford (D-Chicago).
* Finke: Test of wills on budget: The test of wills is going to be with the Senate. Senate Democrats don’t sound like they’re going to just accept the House approach or the House revenue numbers. They could well decide the state can safely spend more money, particularly on human services programs, than the House wants to spend. At some point, they’ll both have to agree on something if the state is going to get a new budget.
* IMPACT fears effects of budget cuts: Concerned disability rights advocates from the Alton area will join others from around Illinois in Springfield on March 15 to protest the governor’s proposed budget that would cut program funding.
* Funding for prison computer improvements depends on legislature: The Illinois Department of Corrections is in the midst of a $30 million, multi-phase overhaul of its antiquated computer systems, but continuing the project depends upon the General Assembly paying for it in the next fiscal year.
* $1 million contract for mayor’s daughter is on table in Dolton: If approved, LL Care and Fitness would earn $117,000 a month, totaling $1.4 million a year, to manage the Dorchester Center, an independent living and banquet facility for low-income seniors, according to records obtained by the Tribune.
* City signs $2.5 million deal for solar-powered trash compactors: The Daley administration has signed a contract with Massachusetts-based BigBelly Solar to provide at least 400 solar-powered trash compactors in the central business district, where pedestrian traffic is heaviest and trash bins need frequent pickups. Each unit holds five times the garbage of a normal trash can and has its own built-in sensor that alerts the city when it’s full. There’s also an attached container for recyclables.
* Treasurers want tax sale reform softened: The Illinois County Treasurers Association is pushing back against a reform bill sponsored by state Sen. Bill Haine, D-Alton, aimed at making delinquent tax sales fairer and more transparent across the state. Specifically, the treasurers group wants Haine to amend provisions in his bill requiring all county treasurers to videotape and audiotape delinquent property tax sales and to use automated bidding procedures. Such mandates would be too costly for some of the state’s smaller counties to put into place, said Dan Welch, the group’s president.
* Transit board seats give elected officials a second public paycheck
* No simple fix to Illinois’ workers’ comp system, officials agree: Most of those involved in Illinois workers’ compensation system agree reforms are needed, but there’s no agreement yet on what form those changes should take. “It’s a very complex issue – we’re moving along, but I wouldn’t say we’ve reached any major agreements,” said Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, who represents Illinois House Republicans on a bipartisan workers’ comp committee set up by Gov. Pat Quinn.
* Flood waters rising?: Southern Illinois towns along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers are making preparations for the possibility of flooding as the waters continue to rise. With weekend rain and the potential for more wet weather early this week, county emergency management personnel are hoping for the best but preparing sandbags just in case.
* Editorial: Online sales tax bill would help Illinois: If forced to collect sales taxes, the affiliates could shut down or move to other states, reducing overall economic activity here. Big online retailers such as Amazon could sever their relationships with local affiliates, again hurting the local economy. The bottom-line success of similar legislation in other states is heavily debated and has led to lengthy litigation.
* Judge to weigh rival plans in Trib bankruptcy case: The hearing edges Tribune Co. closer toward shedding most of the roughly $13 billion that it carried into bankruptcy protection. If it can unload the debt, the company believes it can make money while it tries to adapt to a marketing shift to the Internet.
* Bank kicks off investment on West Side: U.S. Bank unveiled its plans Friday to invest on Chicago’s West Side, highlighting a $600,000 investment and plans to renovate six foreclosed homes in Austin and Maywood that have already begun.
* Five energy companies take on ComEd to power Chicago area
* Chicago says it cost $37.3 million to remove blizzard snow - Tab for airports alone put at $14.5 million
* City’s share of Jesse White Tumbler gym doubles, to $10 million
* Among Blacks, Mayoral Election Forces a Push for New Ideas and Leaders: “I call them the ‘remember-when crew’” Mr. Jackson said. “Remember when Harold said this? Remember when Harold did that? We need to honor and respect the accomplishments of our elders. But it’s time for them to step back and allow us to serve.”
* Alderman to Rahm Emanuel: Back off Ed Burke: “It would be real hard for a lot of the aldermen to go against Burke. We’re all good to each other. We support each other,” said Ald. Walter Burnett (27th), chairman of the Council’s Black Caucus.
* Rahm Emanuel launches political operation: “New Chicago Committee”: Mayor elect Rahm Emanuel is creating a political action committee, called the “New Chicago Committee,” to bankroll his political operation which will include raising money and donating to other candidates–from aldermanic on up–and causes. Emanuel Deputy Campaign Manager Tom Bowen–who managed Forrest Claypool’s independent Cook County Assesors race–and Alexi Giannoulias’ Senate Democratic primary–will helm the New Chicago Committee.
* Daley’s Legacy of Libraries, Culture and Literacy
* Fulton Board chairman silent on filling vacant seat - Democrats divided over nomination of WIU student Tommy Bohler
